Karaoke Forums

Thought the post before the last one was your last!  Tee Hee!  Just kidding!  Like your ideas.  And Hooray for the KJ's, like you and myself that won't put up with the killings of Karaoke because of Contests!!!!!!!!!!!  :dancin:  :)  :oh yeah:

It was my last one, til the next one.    Not until I get all of this poison out of my system.....

They may indeed work at some places and bring in good money, but it is usually short lived.    They should be interested in long term steady money.   Just like any other good investment.    The less down turns, the better the growth.   Karaoke is a long term, money making investment for the bar, so why don't they treat it as such?    I don't like or want the hassle involved and the ill feelings and accusations.   If I don't have contests, then they can't say anything bad about me.  

I really shouldn't be trying to help my competition, by telling them how bad karaoke contest are, in the long run.

My bark is worse than my bite, but that doesn't mean I won't bite you.

At one of the contest I did, (we) videotaped every singer!  Worked perfectly for future Karaoke Contests in that particular bar,when I actually let the bar owner see the video.  It was a darn great video of every singer.  Had professionals judge.  One of the guys, (not singeling out men, it WAS a guy), had a fit before the night was over complaining that the girl that won had no right winning.  Said the judges picked her because of the little dance she did and had nothing to do with her vocals.  He was right!  To an extent.  She really couldn't sing that well, had the little tight country outfit on, but they (the judges) said she could perform.  He was a bump on the log, had a voice, (not the best), BUT, well, there you have it.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not saying she was the better singer, performer, in the crowd, but he did have somewhat of a point.  No, he should not have won.  But unless your on National TV, I don't think any contest is fair.  And then, I really don't think they are either.  He wasn't even anyone I saw in my bars any time but for contests when there were cash prizes.  And haven't seen him since.  
There are also rules you need to follow and abide by when doing contest.  For one!
Have you ever done a contest and found out that one of the singers was someone that sang in a band.  Maybe you didn't know it, but someone in the contest did.  I don't think any of you even want me to go there.  It can also turn out to be a nightmare.

What's wrong with that, i've known many singers that are better than many bands.  Just because you sing in a band, doesn't necessarily make you better than someone who doesn't.  
It's like those rules that state kj's aren't allowed to enter - stupid, just because you're a kj, doesn't mean you are going to stand a better chance of winning.

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This isn't my rule, don't get me wrong.  But what do you do with the customers who found out?  They automatically think because they are not professional singers that they don't stand a chance of winning.  So once they find out in the latter part of the contest, now you have ill feelings.  Therefore causing havoc for the contest.  Singers in the band in my opinion can and most often (more than often) get the vocals correct.  They understand how to hold the mic, they have stage performance.  This is ust a min-ute (sure I spelled that wrong) part of the contest.  But when you are someone who is doing this for fun, yes, it makes you feel inferior to the ones who have been doing this for years.

Most large contests bring out pro singers of all sorts - I don't consider someone that has to get paid a pro.  Being in a band doesn't make anyone better than anyone else.  I sang in a band for years & can't hold a candle to some of the singers that would compete in a contest.  The ones that do karaoke for fun - DON'T ENTER!  Large scale high $ contests are not for the average singer.  This is where things like the Singer Showcase gives false impressions.  Some of the songs i've heard they can't sing very well, but people post comments - HEY YOU'R GREAT, or stuff along those lines - giving the singer a false sense of - "Well maybe I can sing".  These are the people that generally get bitter in contests because their friends & family tell them they can sing.  I subbed two songs just out of curiosity, one of them truly sucked, the other was somewhat marginal - but each songs got rave reviews - I know better.  If I was judging myself in a contest, I wouldn't get high marks but I was paid for singing for over 10 years.  But I also know my chances are slim so I wouldn't enter contests in the first place - I know my own limitations.
In large contest that have qualifying, semi finals, finals of the sorts are going to weed out the average singer before the finals anyway.  If you are good enough to get to the finals - pro or not - doesn't matter.  Again, i've seen strictly karaoke junkies that could blow away ANYONE that makes a living at karaoke, they don't want to do anymore with music but sing karaoke - so overall band  people entering don't matter!

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I still like my "no contests ever" rule.   Then none of this stuff becomes an issue.    

If you want to be discovered, get an agent.    

You KJs can't even talk about a contest without fighting about it.   Shouldn't that tell you everything you need to know???????     WAKE UP PEOPLE.

Most kj's do not know how to run a contest properly either - or they just don't care.

People that enter contests are doing it for the prize - no one is looking to be discovered, it isn't going to happen at karaoke.
As long as there are people on Earth, there will always be a competetinve spirit about them, and they WILL compete.  Maybe it's a locality issue or something, there are MANY contests happening in our area & they are always packed.  Our club requires them, if you turned them down you'd also be turning down some pretty good $$, so that's when you figure out how to do them!

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I agree with Lonman about people who sing with bands.   Besides the words "sings in a band" cover a lot of ground.  There are good bands, bad bands, and bands in between.  That goes for singers too.

I've been singing in bands and as a solo act for nearly 40 years.  Frankly, I don't think I would have the guts to enter a contest.  That doesn't sound like fun to me and I sing because it's fun.

When I go an do karaoke I'm just another singer.  There are times when I probably do have the best voice in the place.  But there are just as many times when I don't.  This past Saturday I went to a bar I hadn't been to before.  There were at least 5 people that I believe have better voices than I do, including the KJ and one of her friends.  But I didn't look at it as competition.  I very much enjoyed their performances.  We all had a good time and I made some new friends.

It's rare when I sing karaoke that somebody doesn't ask me if I sing in a band.  I don't think that has as much to do with my voice as it does the fact that I'm relaxed, I know the words (unless someone specifically requests something I never sing a song I'm not totally familiar with), and there is something about what 40 years of experience does for one's stage presence that is totally different from the average karaoke singer.  But that doesn't make me better, it just makes me different.

The drummer from one of my former bands loves to do karaoke.  But when he does, it's pretty obvious why he didn't sing much with our band.  He's got 25+ years of experience as a professional musician.  He still doesn't realize that he doesn't sing very well.  So much for pro musicians.  Go figure.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

I agree with Lonman, we have been running an idol contest for a year now this saturday will be #3 and everyone pulls them in. YES, there are ones that get bitter and claim they will never sing again, its fixed.... but for most of them they get over it. The toughest thing about this is getting it through to each contestant that this is about having fun. The first thing we say and post on each form is "If you cant except not winning for whatever reason DO NOT ENTER!". The finals are this saturday and there will be upwards of 250 to 300 people, large stage, lights, and video showing how each contestant made it this far along with one minute interviews videoed by B101.5 jock. People love entertainment and thats what the contests should be about making sure its entertaining to everyone one including non-singers. Its the EVENT that gets them excited and wanting to be apart. We have 3 judges that are brought in just for that night and each on is in the music industry. We also have 3 judges that are brought in and placed in the audience to make sure the scoring is as fair as it possibly can. Judges look at Singing ability, stage presents, and audience participation. The winner doesnt have to be strong in any one area they have to be able to pull them all together in order to own the crowd. Its an idol contest meaning can you win over the crowd and make the music yours. With the American Idol craze running rampit offering karaoke thats allows individuals to showcase their talents while giving the non-singer an entertaining event is a must. The marketing bar has been raised which is good because it gives the true KJ's a new tool to weed out the bottom feeders. Because of this like lonman said most venues are requiring that KJ's offer something like this and want more creativity.  :D

Well Bigdog, so far I think you're right in terms of how the contest in Canby is going so far.  There are signs of the contestants and regulars taking this contest way too seriously. They're starting to bad mouth each other and take sides too much..  It's sad because before this contest, everybody seemed to support each other as singers and friends.  Maybe it was a superficial kind of support and friendship?.......hard to say for sure.  But the judges have just been too inconsistent and the rules are just too slanted towards a criteria that doesn't focus enough on real singing ability. Unfortunately, it's too late to change things now. Maybe next time if there is a next time!

The last contest we held, had seven judges for the finals.    These people were all excellent singers and most had been in bands.    We did the scoring like the olympics.   The high and low score was tossed out.    Every judges score was entered on a computer.     I sat in the crowd to personally tell the KJs how to mix everybody to make everyone sound their absolute best.    Each contestant had a video of themselves.    If you want to judge a contest listen to the performance on a video tape.   You can hear everything you didn't hear, live.   The tape doesn't lie.   This contest was absoultly fair without question.

After the contest was over I wanted to experiment with the results.    We sliced and diced every possible combination of judges with the computer score.    We eliminated 1 judge at a time, and anything else we could think of to try to get a different ending.

This is what happened.    

In every combination we tried, the top three contestants, remained the top three.

# 1 remainded the same for every out come.

Interestingly # 2 & 3  changed postitions a few times with each other.    This was due to a 1 point difference.  

After all of the trials, I am convinced that the judging was indeed very fair.

The winner was a not of American decent.    Also was one of the judges.   This became an issue for some of the losers.    But it was not a factor.   Even when we dumped that judges scores totally.     Even with all of the care we took to absolutely insure a fair outcome, we were criticised.     Stick them contests.....

sweety there isnt anything wrong with your looks or your talent you are a 10 in both departments

Aww that's sweet of you to say I still dunno if I would enter one though after seeing how people are at karaoke. I think in general showbiz wants the little barbie doll type and anyone who doesn't fit into that mold has to claw and scratch their way to the top... and well... I'm just not the clawing and scratching type.  LOL

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

We follow this format for contests (Please feel free to copy, fold, spindle, mutilate)

1. Intonation and pitch control. (1-10 scale)

a. Awareness of the intended key and mode

b. Strength and range of voice

c. How accurately does the singer blend with the music?

(In layman's terms: ARE THEY IN TUNE WITH THE MUSIC?)


2. Expression. (1-10 scale)

a. The use of phrasing (starting and stopping nicely)

b. Articulation (understandable words)

c. Dynamics (loud and soft)

d. Tone (clear, nasal, breathy)

(In layman's terms: ARE THEY CLEAR AND UNDERSTANDABLE?)


3. Tempo and rhythm. (1-10 scale)

a. How well does the performer stay in tempo?

b. Duration of the notes (holding notes too long or not long enough?)

c. Awareness of the rhythmic style of the piece

(In layman's terms: CAN THEY KEEP THE BEAT?)


4. Stage presence. (1-10 scale)

a. Facial expression, and body gestures

b. Command of the audience through eye contact, etc.

c. Appearance of confidence and relaxation on stage

d. How absorbing and entertaining was the performance?

e. Audience reaction (Applause)

(In layman's terms: ARE THEY HOLDING THE AUDIENCE'S ATTENTION?)

The college entrance exam isn't that long.    LMAO    How can a judge score on all of those points, for each singer?    The song would have to be 20 minutes long.

They had a contest at the place I sang at last night.  It sounds like the same format as the one described by Micbob: three judges, somewhere in the audience.  I didn't stay very long to find out who won.  Actually they chose one "finalist" each week, and then at some point the finalists would come together and they'd decide the winner.

I didn't know there was going to be a contest.  I don't know if it would have affected my song choices had I known.  I sang two songs, did okay but not great, especially on the second song where I screwed up the timing a couple of times.  The girl who went after me was fantastic.  Didn't move around much, just tapped her foot to the music, but had a really good voice, nice and strong.  I assume she was the winner of the night, but I left early so other good singers could have been on later.

I think there was some money on the line this time.  That probably brought out better singers.

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Reward: nine yen in drawer.